Driving, for me, has taken on many forms over the years:
The Freedom Stage: Obviously when you're sixteen, driving represents a sense of freedom, of not having to fight with your sister over who gets to sit in the front seat of your mom's station wagon, of being able to go where you please as fast as you can get there with practically no regard for traffic laws or fellow drivers. This beginning stage, which usually lasts from sixteen until twenty or so, is when most of one's accidents and tickets occur. This can be attributed fairly equally to inexperience and stupidity. Take it from the kid who rear-ended three people during snowstorms in his first winter behind the wheel! I'll chalk that one up to inexperience... certainly not stupidity! :)
The Smart vs. Not So Smart Decisions Stage: This stage typically begins the day you turn twenty-one and are legally able to drink alcohol. During this stage, alcohol is the accelerant for most of our smart/not so smart decisions when it comes to the "Should I be driving?" discretion. This is also the stage where you start playing the "I know it's a left turn only lane, but I know I can beat him off the line and go straight anyway" games or the "I know that when that light turns red, this one turns green" savvy. Taking your bombed out friends home... smart decision. Waking up with your car parked sideways in the front yard next to the oak tree forty feet from the driveway and not being sure how either it, or you got home... no so smart decision.
The "I'm the Best Driver on the Road" Stage: Unfortunately, the Smart vs. Not So Smart stage can last in perpetuity for our entire lives. After all, give someone a 2,000lb. vehicle that goes 125mph and stupidity is bound to ensue. That said, I'd like to think we get a little bit smarter as we get older and that the smart decisions start to outweigh the no so ones. This gradual shift has a tendency to convince one's self that he is the best driver on the road and everyone... and I do mean EVERYONE... else is an absolute moron. An idiot. An ignoramus. Nicely put? A &*#!$% idiot. There are the common racial driving stereotypes, the cab drivers, the non-blinker users, the slow ones, the fast ones, the "updating my status on Facebook while sitting in front of you at a green light" ones, the "beep at you the second the light turns green" gang and countless others. Honestly, I'd almost rather walk, these days, than subject myself to the frustration I feel for being the best. It's a burden, really.
There are many other stages of one's driving life including the "I'm So Old, My Leg Isn't Strong Enough to Push the Pedal Hard Enough to Go Over 27mph" stage and the "I Only Have One Finger and It's the One in the Middle" stage. When I hit these, I'll touch on this subject again! :)
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